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"Tube unions are blaming Boris Johnson for last night's violence "

What a surprise.

Unless these drunken idiots are put away for a month they'll be at it again again and again.

The unions are, of course, not interested in their members, just getting at a Tory. I suspect they have made this utterly silly anouncement reconing that the trouble will return since someone else is being blamed. This is standard leftwing and trade union practice and is a foretaste of what will happen regarding schools and the NHS with a Tory government unless the spin is quickly dealt with.

There's an anti-Boris group on Facebook (there are a few actually) who deliberately called for this kind of protest, so this stunt had been planned for quite some time in the fringes of the radical left. The police did the right thing in arresting these buffoons and and this Union thug should apologise for the waste of air he makes everytimes he talks.

Or opens his mouth.

This is just sour grapes from the left.

Quite clearly they have still to get over the fact that Livingstone has been kicked out of office. They are like bears with sore heads.

Bob Crow is an odious thug and his union a regressive and unpleasant little organisation. I hope Boris deals with them.

They can go back to holding garden parties in solidarity with Cuba. (http://www.rmt.org.uk/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=101486)

I think the people of the country in general would have great sympathy with a Conservative Mayor or Government which crushed the RMT in order to provide the public with a reliable transport system not crippled by meaningless and insignificant strikes.

I really welcome Richard Balfe's work with more forward-looking unions, but hope he isn't talking to the RMT - they aren't partners in the Britain we as Conservatives want to create.

And where exactly is he???

I too enoyed my last official G&T on the tube last night. Jolly good it was too.

My friends and I will now put our G&Ts in a Coke bottle and carry on drinking comme d'habitude!

Silly Gimmick! Won't work.

Surprised anyone is daft enough to fall for it.

Oh yes and I wonder if Boris is enjoying a drink or three on that yacht in the med or is it just the proletariat that is banned from a tipple

Imogen , if you're strange enough to think a G&T on the tube is anything close to a pleasant experience, then you need help.


This is the same Bob Crow who campaigned for Ken, of course.

I think lessons should be learnt. A mid-week introduction would have been safer, and it sounds like there were no extra police officers or tube staff on hand until it was too late. Probably a good measure - but let's be honest and face the fact that it was introduced quite clumsily.

Imogen

You must have a real problem if you can't travel a few stops on the tube without a drink.
Check with Times Online. The response is overwhelmingly for Boris.

If this idiot Imogen thinks that its cool and liberal to drink on the tube then she must be stupid. The transport system is there to transport not for partying and gin swilling.

As an active shop steward in Apex, I have to say Bob Crow does not speak for the unions. He speaks for his SWP-tainted view of unionism.

Of all the polls that unions conduct of their members, the one they feel so much is the one they refuse to do - see how many of them actually support or want to be affiliated to Labour

The reason I most like this ban is for the signal it sends. It's telling the people who think that they can do anything they like, anwhere they like that, that they can't. Boris is saying that the law-abiding have rights too.

We should use this type of protest and attack as a measure of Boris's success. When the likes of the odious Mr Crow are bleating about him this will be a good measure of successful conservative government. When we dont hear these left wing types screaming blue murder we will know that we are not being radical enough. This will be a sign that Boris is failing to make the necessary changes in London.
I long to have a national government that again has the civil rights lobby shouting with enraged indignation. We will then know there is once again hope for a better future for the majority of us ie. - normal decent people.

Trotskyists organize a riot in protest at enforcing law-and-order on the Tube and then blame it all on Boris for wanting to enforce law-and-order on the Tube!

It's clear though that Bob Crow has thrown down the gauntlet. Boris needs to ready a strike-breaking action plan before he picks it up.

It makes me laugh, these socialist types complaining about Boris' curtailing of their so-called liberties. If they truly want to rebel against their oppressors, they could try lighting up a cigarette in pubs and bars across the country.

We must be doing something right for Crow to get so upset!!
I don't recall the Unions jumping up and down claiming a smoking ban was "unforceable" so what is different about this time around?

Crow just seems to contradict himself between each thing he says.

I didn't like the idea of the ban as it's punishing the majority who can drink and not cause trouble, to deal with the minority who want to punch someone after a sip of stella.

But I guess this has proved there will always be the latter type so have to deal with them some how.
Although I don't put it past bitter Ken supporters to have caused the trouble in an aim to vilify Boris but actually endorsing him in the process!

ABUSIVE COMMENT OVERWRITTEN.

"is it just the proletariat that is banned from a tipple"

Unusual. A proletarian who drinks G&T, says stuff ike 'comme d'habitude' and is called Imogen.

Smoking was banned on Tube trains something like 20 years before the national smoking ban. Later smoking was banned on all Tube property after the King's Cross fire disaster.

The original ban on smoking on actual trains was entirely uncontroversial and besides for a few idiots who defied it for a few days it was accepted immediately by the travelling public.

I don't remember RMT complaining too much about that. I can't see the alcohol ban being any harder to enforce than the cigarette ban. Crow is an idiot.

Oh yes and I wonder if Boris is enjoying a drink or three on that yacht in the med or is it just the proletariat that is banned from a tipple
---

Is "that yacht" a form of public transport? Do thousands of people use "that yacht" a day?

The thinking behind the ban was that passengers consuming alcohol on public transport can lead violence a case hat seems to have been proven by these events. Bob Crow's members who were assaulted I suspect are more likely to blame their attackers than the Mayor for banning alcohol.

Sometimes I despair of Britain. Perhaps some of those causing trouble on the tube last night were politically motivated, the majority I think were just morons.I hope prosecutions are brought against all those arrested.However, not suprised that the odious Crow attacks this idea as for him being a communist it's a case of 'the worse the better'. Boris is going to have to make sure this is rigourously enforced, he should be looking to pick fights with Crow at every opportunity.

so presumably the unions support the smoking ban which is left to teenage bar maids and shop workers to enforce!!!

Stupid bloody unions

OK, I'm a Labour supporter and I voted for Ken. I actually think Boris's policy on this one is right (though it's small beer - no pun intended).

But it was introduced in a bad way and has left a bad taste in the mouth for many - as a shallow populist policy that restricts people's freedoms - you ought to be carfeul about banning what has been perfectly legal for over a century, as Tories keep telling us!

I know you lot love to slag off the government for consulting on change but maybe you know why now - it both prepares the ground and helps iron out the problems.

I note from the news coverage that many of these drunken tube revellers had spent the day on the anti-Heathrow protest. Quelle surprise.

The Ed quotes James Forsyth at coffee House as saying, "This mindset which always blames the supposed provocation rather than those actually responsible for the actions is one of the great ills of our time. The moral responsibility for last night’s disgraceful scenes lies squarely with its perpetrators."

Totally agree, absolutely. Well said, and this needs to be said again and again: it is always the perpetrators of violence who are responsible. But personal responsibility is not a popular concept at the BBC and other socialists etc who every time there is a terrorist incident go on about 'alienation' and how everyone other than the terrorist is responsible for the terrorist being 'alienated'.

And I would add, that as What started as a good-natured gathering of drinkers to mark the beginning of the new Mayor's alcohol ban degenerated into violence aptly demonstrates the reason for the ban.

Fascinating stuff and telling. I am only 37 but remember a time when I could name the TUC leader and all manner of other union leaders.... haven't a clue who is the leader of the TUC now and frankly don't care. Blair came to power aiming to kill off the Conservative Party and failed. I hope when we get back in we finish Thatcher's work and wipe the Unions off the map, though they seem to be doing that for us.

Typical left wing hijacking of an issue. Banning drinking on the tube is widely supported and correct. Boris has been elected with a strong mandate. Enforce this measure relentlessly and win or we all pack up as the thugs will have won. Its really time that Britain was reclaimed by the civilised. A Tory Govt must be about this perhaps more than anything.

The fake outrage of Bob Crow, that hard core remnant of anachronistic Trotskyite revolutionary politics, would be incredibly amusing if it wasn't for the fact that people got hurt. Crow, and his Socialist Action mate ex Mayor Livingstone (oh how good that "ex" sounds)are sickeningly attempting to misuse those victims of crime for pathetically transparent political ends. The British Transport Police might perhaps be asked to take a leading role in enforcing Boris' entirely sensible, much needed and wholly correct alcohol ban on the tube. So where were they last night, or are they just an outpost of Crow's class war?

A very british response to illiberal state interference in one's life. And brilliant fun it was too - To be applauded.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW383-mDwU4&feature=related

PS sky coverage is abit sour on this one. Extremely little trouble considering 10,000 people (taxpayers) were enjoying a good booze up.

I think it's time that the Mayor's Office put out some kind of statement! LBC97.3 has turned into London Bob Crow Radio and I for one would like to hear what Boris has to say on the matter!

JimLiberty - nothing wrong with a "good booze up" (except you get a sore head the next day!) but why couldn't the 10,000 taxpayers have done it in pubs?

COMMENT OVERWRITTEN.

To the comment about Boris's holiday . it's halfterm he has kids , is he not allowed to have a normal life and like thousands of others go on holiday with his children.

Funny that. I always thought that you got on a tube train to get from A to B not to get smashed. I always thought you went to a pub for that.
Good for Boris. That one needed doing.

I have managed to get hold of a press release that the RMT has issued today. I will let you all draw your own conclusions!!
"AT LEAST twelve members of Tube staff were assaulted at King's Cross station alone during Saturday night's alcohol-fuelled disturbances, according to reports coming in to the biggest London Underground union.

RMT has called for a personal apology from the mayor - who was conspicuous by his absence - to all staff members assaulted as the 'half-baked' alcohol ban came into force.

The disturbing picture coming from RMT reps includes reports that police were 'too busy' to come to the aid of a woman member of staff hit by a bottle thrown at High Street Kensington station, and arriving too late to quell disturbances at other stations.

"The more reports we get from our reps the uglier the picture of Saturday's violence becomes, and the clearer it is that Tube bosses effectively just crossed their fingers and closed their eyes," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"Local reps are telling us that the scenes were among the most chaotic they have ever seen, with none of the mitigation and crowd-control that would be in place on New Year's Eve - and the concentration of numbers at times was probably greater.

"LUL can't say it wasn't expecting a massive drunken crowd, and doing nothing amounts to a shameful dereliction of its duty of care towards staff and Tube passengers.

"And where was the mayor when our members were being assaulted thanks to his half-baked publicity stunt - was he still swanning around on a yacht in Turkey?

"TfL rubbished our warnings and said that our members would be able to call on the British Transport Police if there was trouble, but Saturday night proved that to be the nonsense it has always been.

"We have been saying for years that the BTP are already too under-resourced to respond to the calls they already get.

"We understand from driver reps that on the District and Circle lines there were no fewer than five Mayday calls at one point, with no hope of getting help to them.

"Cleaners, most of them on little more than the minimum wage, spent the early hours of Sunday clearing up a sea of vomit, urine, bottles, cans and other debris for no extra pay, and that too is a scandal," Bob Crow said

ends

Notes to editors:RMT estimates that the true number of assaults on staff, including spitting, threats and verbal assaults, was more than 50. At least twelve members of staff were assaulted at King's Cross alone.

BTP were reportedly 'too busy' to come to the aid of a woman member of staff pushed, pulled and hit by a bottle thrown at High Street Kensington

An RMT member was punched in the face and had beer poured over his head during the incident at Euston Square.

One of at least four drivers assaulted was knocked on the head by an assailant, and his glasses were broken.

Some drivers booked off on safety grounds when passengers became angry and there were no staff available to assist.

One driver refused to move his train when it came to his attention that there was a man on the roof.

At several locations passengers were seen on the tracks, endangering themselves and others.

At several locations objects were thrown onto the tracks.

Passengers were seen urinating on trains and onto tracks

Drivers also report doors being pushed off their runners and trains vandalised, some seriously.

At Liverpool Street station, one of six closed during the evening, police told supervisors that the station could reopen at 22:00 - but without police assistance. The station remained closed until start of traffic on Sunday.

At least six passenger emergency alarms (PEAs) were activated during the evening. Drivers responding to PEAs were finding it almost impossible to make their way through trains thanks to the sheer number of people and the amount of debris and discarded bottles and cans.

Cleaners working for contractors and paid substantially below the London living wage were expected to clean up the resulting foul mess without receiving any extra pay.

Station closures and the suspension of District and Circle Line services had a knock-on effect on the rest of the network, creating a greater workload and causing problems for staff at most locations.

Picture of total chaos emerges from Tube's night of violence


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London Underground staff currently suffer an average of 12 physical assaults a week. Will Bob Crowe be so vocal when it’s time to thank Boris for reducing this figure (through sensible measures like banning alcohol)? I doubt it.

Incidentally, I have complained to LBC about their almost continuous coverage of Bob Crow over the last two days! This is the response I received from Jonathan Edwards, their Programme Director. Frankly, I did not find it very helpful and actually almost rude!

"Dear Sally

Thanks for your email. When the man who represents the vast majority of our tube workers blames the Mayor for a night of violence it is a strong story. It has nothing to do with political bias. Bob Crowe makes the point (as have many other commentators) that to ban alcohol is fine, but who will Police it? I would have been angry if my journalists didn't pick up on this. We also reported the violence in the bulletins. I find it hugely offensive as a journalist myself to be told the station is going to the left just because we dare to report somebody being critical of the Mayor. I presume you wouldn't complain about the vast majority of stories that are critical of the Government?

Kind regards,"

I hope Boris bans eating on public transport as well. People look disgusting eating in such dirty surroundings and so does the litter they leave. I am ashamed to think of what foreigners must think of us, especially after paying so much for the use of a tube train.

Is drinking on the tube really the problem?

Personally I have much more of an issue with public drunkenness than with public drinking...

Yeah.. And I hope he bans sleeping on the tube too.... people look disgusting sleeping in such surroundings. why people can't just wait and go home or to a hotel before they have a nap. They make the place look untidy and make others feel anxious that they might lean on them and drool; spreading all sorts of unknown diseases.

I'm ashamed what foreigners must think of us not being able to stay awake througout the day.
They must be some sort of sleepaholic or something.

Actually I did see Boris outside Liverpool Street station necking a bottle of Newcastle Brown before throwing the empty at the police and shouting 'What ho lads!'

When I had a look at some of the associated Facebook groups I was interested to see a comment from one girl just prior to the event "...spacehijackers will tell us where to go..."

http://www.spacehijackers.co.uk/html/welcome.html

Have a look at the spacehijackers weblink and come to your own conclusions!!

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